Brandon sanderson

30 pages for campI added 31 pages into my S.B.
continue with blog postsOrganization skills need to improve! I’ve been contemplating putting WordPress on my phone so that I can work on my posts when I’m not near the computer. However, at the same time, I enjoyed the break from all of the Internet ties when I go away for a few days.For the moment, the pros and cons balance each other out.
chapter 1 @ the betas
start chapter 2Yeah, I am nowhere near finished chapter 1, every time I sit down to write, I get lost in the massive holes I have! Chapter 2 is a far distant light that is not getting any closer.participate in these Twitter games

May goals:

30 pages in S.B.
blog posts
write more of chapter 1
network on WordPress
Twitter games

Reading:

I finished Wells of Ascension! I am so delighted to have that tome of a book over with. I re-read The Eye of the World Robert Jordan. This time I highlighted any piece of writing that stood out to me, I then wrote all of these quotes out and put them into my S.B. to teach myself how to write.

We were walking through a book market and I saw something that jumped out at me, “this is about my city! And New York, but it starts off in my city.” I gushed about the book so much that my boyfriend bought it for me. Les Cendres D’Angela by Frank McCourt. I read it years ago. It was nice to have a bit of home when I was walking around a French market.
Yesterday, we bought Le Meilleur des Mondes by Aldous Huxley (A Brave New World). I have never read it before, and it is the next book on my to-read list after I finish The Great Hunt. Yes, I got hooked by The Wheel of Time. This time is different though because I am analyzing the writing throughout.

I feel good about my book. Myself and my boyfriend had a huge chat about my world. It is amazing to be able to discuss the ins and outs with someone. To see my world come to life in his words. I’ve decided on a couple of things:

1. I’m no longer going to worry about getting a short story or poem published. It is too stressful at the moment. As I was sitting on the bus on my way home on Tuesday, it dawned on me. I’ve been writing for less than 2 years. Why am I in such a rush?

2. I am going to start draft 3. I have all the pieces for the 1st chapter. I’ve outlined it for my boyfriend and he agrees with my idea. I know the tone I want, I know how I want the reader to feel. I am ready.

I succeeded in writing and publishing each post this week. I am happy with myself for that. This was a hard week life wise, I was exhausted all week. I now know why I’m sick again. I did 3 in-depth character descriptions for my Series Bible I would have liked to have done more but I had no choice as I had to go to bed earlier 2 nights of this week. I haven’t thought about camp NaNoWriMo at all, I have yet to make a final decision there.

I am up to chapter 28 in the Wells of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson, I am really loving the story. I’m learning lots about storytelling. I honestly think I spoon-feed too much information to the audience. I’ve noticed Sanderson will introduce a character, give a hint of the mystery that that character is involved in, then ignore him for several chapters. It makes me want to keep reading, I’m waiting for that character to reappear. I know I’ll only get a nugget of information before he disappears again. It keeps me hungry.

I’m thinking how to do this with my own characters. How to keep the reader interested without giving too much information. Once again it comes down to practice, now I have bookmarked this as a technique I need to learn, I will have to do it the wrong way several times before figuring out the right way. That is exactly how I will learn to be a good writer.

I’m off to get better, hopefully, I’ll be able to do more work this week. Happy Saturday!

Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up in April, I decided I would not participate this year. Then I saw a tweet about it and I got a tingle in my belly. It comes to what would I do? What project would I dedicate my April month to? Last year, I tried it but failed because I was editing, well, rewriting Death’s Valley. I focused on the number of words I wrote each day instead of the quality of the story. This obviously rules out my WIP. Continue reading →

Reading
The challenge to read L’Orientalisme by Edward W. Said has given me a swift kick up the bottom! However, in reaching for the difficult goal to read it, I am now able to browse the adult fiction section in the library. The last time I took a book from this section, I did finish the book but I understood nothing. It took a couple of chapters to realize that the storm they kept going on about was actually a characters name. That is how lost I was. Continue reading →